Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Is Jesus the Lord of your life? Do you submit to His Lordship? Are you in submission to His will? Do you yield to His control?

What do I mean by this, are you obedient to the path He has asked you to follow? I know what you are saying," It’s Grace, it’s all about Grace" and I would answer yes it is, but that doesn’t give us a reason to continue in sin. We are saved through grace but that does not mean we are not to be obedient to the Word of God. When we are saved, we are to be submissive to the Lord, it is a commandment of God. There is scripture throughout the Bible that teaches us to submit to our Lord to help us mature in Christ. I am not saying it is works that saves,but I am saying, obedience is important , it should be a desire for us to please God in all we do. Yes we are still in the flesh and it is something we will all fight until the day we are face to face with Jesus but the flesh should not be our excuse everytime we sin. We do not need to be disobedient, we choose to.Sometimes we try to accomplish things on our own when we have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside us to be obedient and we should rely on Him..
Eph. 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit is yielding to the Spirit’s control. It is also important to note that even when we fail to obey, God has made a provision for that so that we can remain in fellowship with Him.
1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”We are strongest when we rely on Him, We can not do this on are own, when the Lord is first in our lives, then and then alone do we really see a difference in our walk. The question is are we willing to bow down to the Lord's leading?

Consider some of the serious implications of Jesus' lordship:1. Lordship implies our entire submission from the outset. It is a strange salvation that knows nothing about daily submission to Christ the Lord.2. Lordship implies our willing service. The most outstanding conversion in the history of the church was that of the apostle Paul, recorded in Acts 9. It is interesting to note two questions Paul asked in verses 5 and 6: "Who are you, Lord?" and "What do you want me to do?" These are questions of a willing servant.3. Lordship implies obedience. Jesus Said in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?"4. Lordship implies ownership. If Jesus is my Lord, He owns me lock, stock, and barrel.Ernest C. Reisinger

Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father's will thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he follows this plan with all his children. --John Calvin

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

"Perhaps the most serious, sobering thing my mind has ever contemplated is the fact that I am always in the presence of God. God cannot be shut out anywhere. Even in the most secret recesses of my mind and the deepest, most secluded imaginationsof my heart, God is there. Everything I think, say, and do is done in the immediate presence of God. This fact should cause me to be filled with reverence and godly fear and with great joy too. God is present everywhere to save, preserve, and comfort his elect." -Don Fortner

Our Lord is always with us, He sees all and hears all that we say and do, even when we are in the flesh and yet He never leaves us. His promise is kept, His love is eternal. There is no greater love then the love of God.

Jer 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Matthew 18:12-14 "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? (13) "And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. (14) "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites, and afterwards throw theminto prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed.God blots out His people's sins, but not their names.—Thomas Watson

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Those circumstances, which to the dim eye of Jacob's faith wore a hue so somber, were at that very moment developing and perfecting the events which were to shed around the evening of his life the halo of a glorious and cloudless sunset. All things were working together for his good! And so, troubled soul, the "much tribulation" will soon be over, and as you enter the "kingdom of God" you shall then see, no longer "through a glass darkly" but in the unshadowed sunlight of the Divine presence, that "all things" did "work together" for your personal and eternal good.—Arthur W. Pink

As the Elections of United Stated draw near, I are wondering what will happen in the next years ahead with the newly elected Government? When folks go to elect the one they feel would run the country better, do they elect the best of the worse? Do they elect the ones that are against abortion or those that are for abortion because they seem to be the better one that can deal with the economy? I have heard many professing Christians say they will vote for Obama because they feel he will be the best one because of the economy, and some say they will vote for McCain because he would be best one to deal with the terrorist and can protect our country.

McCain supports the following statements:Abortions should be legal only when the pregnancy resulted from incest, rape, or when the life of the woman is endangered.Prohibit the late-term abortion procedure known as “partial-birth” abortion.Prohibit public funding of abortions and public funding of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.Obama:Q: Do you personally believe that life begins at conception?A: This is something that I have not come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question. What I know is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates. I have to ask the Americans, do you vote for men that feel it is ok to abort a baby? We have been given the freedom and privilege to vote, but I also believe we have to be true to the Lord and not vote for a man that would agree to abortion, in any cercumstance. We have to remember who ever gets voted in to office, God has already planned it and for what ever purpose has allowed one of these two gentlemen to run the country for the years ahead. As a christian can you really vote for one of these men because of their stand on Abortion? I could not cast a vote for a man that believes in the murder of of a baby. When a mom decides to abort her baby because she was raped or because of incest, I am sorry I can not agree with it. There are many folks out there that are alive because a mother decided against abortion, and gave birth, I am sure they are so thankful. When a mother's life is in trouble, it is tough but I have a heard of many women willing to take a chance for their baby to be born and I commend them.I guess it bothers me that christians are willing to vote in a man that is willing to take away the chance of life for a baby to be born. Obama is just sitting on the fence like he always does to get the vote from both sides. I commend a man that stands up and say abortion is wrong and I will not agree with it and I commend a christian to say no and does not vote for a man that believes in the murdering of babies.Divine sovereignty is not the sovereignty of a tyrannical Despot, but the exercised pleasure of One who is infinitely wise and good! Because God is infinitely wise He cannot err, and because He is infinitely righteous He will not do wrong. Here then is the preciousness of this truth. The mere fact itself that God's will is irresistible and irreversible fills me with fear, but once I realize that God wills only that which is good, my heart is made to rejoice.—Arthur W. Pink Cristina